PDC Went Down...Need Help

[crazycelicagts1]

Hi everyone. Here is my situation. My PDC server went down due to hardware problem so I got a new motherboard, cpu, memory, etc...I'm running Windows 4.0 NT. The old PDC was a 80mb RAM and 200 mhz. Okay well the BDC = (backup domain controller) is acting as a PDC at the moment. I just reinstall the PDC on the new computer and am ready to make it the PDC (primary domain controller). How do I go about that? is there a way to recover the SAM? I copy all the stuff on the harddrive before formatting and installing Windows NT 4.0 again. Is there a way to find out the setting that was on that? Well if you guys can help me out, I would really appreciate it. The company has about 50 computers, 1 file server, 1 imaging server, 1 web server, and 1 apps server. All the computer are running 98se and a few machine running xp and windows 2000. Well before the PDC went down, everyone could log in but when the PDC went down, the windows 2000 and the xp machine can't get on unless I put in a static IP address....the Win98 SE machine are able to log on just fine. What can that be and how do I solve that? Thanks for any info.

 

[stash]

I'm a little confused...you say your BDC is acting as the PDC now, since the orig PDC is down. Does this mean you promoted the BDC? If not, then it is not acting like a PDC, its a BDC! Which means no updates to the sam (password changes, new accounts, disabling of accounts) are possible. The easiest way to rebuild the PDC and not lose the sam is to promote your BDC to a PDC, then reinstall NT on the old PDC but make it a BDC. The sam will then sync. If you try to rebuild the PDC as a PDC again, I think you will have problems.

If you are set on keeping the original PDC as a PDC, you can always promote it after you have sync'd it with the new PDC (current BDC, confused yet?)

 

[crazycelicagts1]

i gotcha, so basically just setup the new computer as a backup domain controller and then after the sync, destinate it as a PDC. Well when the PDC went down, one of the server on the network destinate itself as a PDC cause i went to one of the monitor program and it says that one of the them is a PDC. any more advice? how do I change the characteristic of the BDC to become a PDC.....

 

[stash]

If you PDC goes down, you have to promote your BDC. I'm not sure what you are seeing, but I'm almost positive that a BDC will not promote itself if the PDC dies.

Anyway, to promote the existing BDC, you would go to server manager, highlight the server and under the (file? first one on the left) menu, you will see an option to promote. Then rebuild the PDC as a BDC and syncronize the domain (an option in the same menu). Once the domain is sync'd, highlight the new BDC (old PDC) and repeat the promote procedure, and you should be back to the way you were.

 

[Tiger]

Stash got it right.
That's the whole idea behind having a carbon copy BDC, if the PDC goes down you promote the BDC to PDC then you've got time to fix the original PDC. If your hell bent on using it as a PDC again install it as a BDC, sync it up, and promote it back to PDC.

 

[N11]

If you have the previous BDC operating as a PDC and have the new PDC you are building on the network and do a BDC install, it will attempt to syncronize for you during the install process.

 

[stash]

yes, but it is still a good idea to syncronize the domain after the installation, right before you do the promotion, to make sure the sam has the most current information.

 

[N11]

Yeah and I would agree. It is a good step, but the process should try and make an attempt during install and initially upon bootup/authentication.

I've seen weirdness where there's some erroring out during the sync attempt during installs. I typically try to stay away from NT Server these days, however. If you have to go the Microsoft path, there's just no comparison between NT4 and Win2k/AD. It's night and day really.

 

[crazycelicagts1]

wus up guys, thanks for the info, i made the computer a BDC and it sync up just fine. I have another question, how or what can I do to find out what was on the old server, i saved all the files including the winnt folder, the registry, etc.....I want to install the same service and setting as the old one. I also have another problem, before the BDC went down, everyone was able to obtain an IP address from using DHCP but when it went down only some machine could pick it up and the others can't like windows 2000, windows XP, and some windows 98 machine. I would have to enter in a static IP address and gateway for those that can't obtain the IP address automatically. I can find out what each server is running such as what service is running, etc...thanks for you guys help, you guys are da bomb.